HOW DO WE WIN IN THIS HIGH-SPEED, CRAZY WORLD?

64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy World is a compendium of value-accelerators for business and life. It is gathered as a 64 shot method from the astute observations and remarkable life of creative business leader Kevin Roberts.

INTRODUCTION BY KEVIN ROBERTS

This book 64 Shots — a shot being a fast swing, an injection, a strong drink, an explosive charge, a Moon shot — is designed to help leaders succeed in today’s ultra-turbulent world. I wrote it to bring a sense of optimism to a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous era. VUCA forces are eroding the ground under every organization and individual. Technology, in particular, has sparked an incredible moment. Industries, companies, and entire societies are being reset at record pace. Falling behind or getting ahead in life is an intense high-speed contest.

I have distilled 64 shots for leaders and aspiring leaders to meet today’s extraordinary demands. Leadership is the defining difference in any field, and leading people in a crazy world requires a wider range of skills and emotional capabilities than ever. A leader’s skillset has to be meta, macro, and micro; soft and hard; strategic and creative; directional and executional.

The book is inspired by Saatchi & Saatchi which is the central current in my business life. I spent 20 years as a client, then 17 years as Saatchi & Saatchi’s global CEO, and one year as Executive Chairman, which evolved into Chairmanship. The Lovemarks book series was my means of reframing the industry I found myself in; leadership, however, is my passion.

These 64 shots assemble everything I’ve learned in business to propel the 21st-century leader. They are the basis of my operating style, teaching method, frameworks and formats, and forward focus. Their launch pad is the wisdom of a pantheon of leaders across fields and time.

In these crazy times, everyone must lead. My goal with 64 Shots is to liberate you, the leader, from mind-numbing management literature. This book is meant to inspire, unleash, and entertain you. These 64 jabs to the solar plexus are quick sets of illumination, activation, and acceleration. Different shots will help different people. Go straight to what helps most, or read the book cover-to-cover for the full treatment on leadership. There is a linear logic to the shots but each set of four is a stand-alone idea.

64 Shots comes from the worlds of business and sport. It is for anyone leading any group of people anywhere. I hope there is something here that will inspire you, and help you set others free. And whatever you do, make sure you take the shot.

"Kevin Roberts does, well, a Kevin Roberts hat trick. 64 Shots is pure Roberts magic—practical as hell, applicable in the next 15 minutes, a life guide, and pure inspiration in terms of both content and design."

–Tom Peters

"We get 50 books a day at Bloomberg, every day, all year, and 64 Shots is far and away the most gorgeous and beautiful book to have walked in the door in years. 64 Shots is my book of the summer."

- Tom Keene, Editor-at-Large, Bloomberg

Media Coverage:

Especially in the context of running creative businesses; the implications for marketing of advertising, PR, and other disciplines converging on the same space; the pursuit of the big idea; inspiration from exceptional human beings who transcended their chosen activity, such as recently deceased boxing legend Muhammad Ali; and why Cannes ain’t quite what it used to be...

"Do you think we live in a crazy world?” Kevin Roberts asked me on a sunny afternoon, sitting with his back to the Hudson River waterfront glistening outside of his 16th-floor office window. The 66-year-old chairman at Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide and head coach at Publicis Groupe certainly thinks we do. In fact, there’s a term for it — VUCA, which means volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous...

The keyword in the title of my new book 64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy World, is “crazy.” It’s a crazy world. Leicester City? That’s crazy. Trump? Crazy. Here are two (of 64) ways Cumbrians can bounce back from the Winter mayhem of this crazy world.